Portland Observer, March 25,196 2 Page 5
Washington Hotline
¿OVERPAY
by Congressman Kon Wyden
your
Q. Saturday, the Administration
backed down from earlier proposals
to weaken health and safety regula
tions f o r America’s nursing homes.
H o w do you fe e l about this deci
sion?
A. I'm very pleased. As I outlined
in a press conference Friday, I had
been very concerned about what the
proposed changed could mean for
America's elderly.
A m ong the d raft proposals, for
exam ple, were those which would
have elim in ated the requirem ent
that homes receiving Medicare pay
ments provide staff training in areas
such as fire safety, the problems o f
the aged and ill, and con tro l o f
infectious diseases.
The d ra ft proposals also would
have:
•allowed homes to avoid comply
ing w ith federal hygiene and sani
tary standards unless there are not
staste requirements at a ll— even if
those requirements arc minimal;
•elim inated the requirement that
homes have a medical director on
stsff, and that personal physicians
visit patients at least once a month,
and;
•elim inated the requirement that
homes have activity centers.
I ’ m pleased the A d m in istratio n
now has switched gears and declared
that nursing home patients deserve
federal protection. But we should
not start celebrating quite yet.
For one thing, the Administration
is not backing o ff o f its proposed
social service budget cuts, many o f
which would seriously impact nurs
ing home patients.
In addition, although the Adm in
istration has had a change o f heart
on the majority o f the proposed reg
ulatory changes, Health and Human
Services Secretary Richard Schweik-
er has said he still intends to pursue
changes in the nursing home inspec
tion program that would reduce the
num ber o f inspections fo r homes
that meet federal standards, while
Increasing those fo r substandard
homes.
Although I agree w ith Secretary
Schweiker that substandard homes
should be inspected m ore o fte n , I
seriously question the advisability o f
reducing the number o f inspections
for homes that meet the standards.
Regular inspections are designed not
only to ensure that homes meet ba
sic standards, but also to ensure that
they m aintain them. T o do o th e r
wise, would be to je o p a rd ize the
quality o f care for one o f the most
vulnerable groups in our society.
Q. Last week, you and other
members o f the House Oversight
and Investigations Subcommittee
fin a lly got to view the documents
that Secretary Watt has been with
holding under an executive privilege
claim. A fter seeing the documents,
W A S H IN G T O N . O . C . — T im
C o ulter, a part-lndian lawyer with
the Indian Law Resource Center in
Washington, had never gotten a call
before from the State Department
offering support for his Tight for In
dian rights. So he was surprised
when the Reagan Adm inistration's
Human Rights Bureau called him to
ask if he would protest to Nicaragua
about that governm ent's con flict
with the Miskito Indians.
The first call was over a year ago.
Several m ore have been received
since then, all about the Miskitos.
N e x t, a retired U .S . A rm y
c o lo n e l, Sam D ickens, fro m the
conservative A m erican Security
Council, issued a press release to say
the Council was sponsoring a visit to
Washington by a Miskito Indian to
denounce what he called the Nicara
guan government's "policy o f geno
cide against the M iskitos."
Secretary o f State Alexander Haig
and President Reagan soon joined
the chorus o f public protests over
N icaragua's "gen o cid al actions"
against the Miskitos.
Such unanimous official concern
for Indian rights would have been—
in another e ra — the equivalent o f
turning the U .S. cavalry against the
settlers for encroaching on Indian
hunting ground.
N ic a ra g u a ’ s M is k ito s , about
10,000 o f whom live on the Atlantic
Coast province o f Z e la y a , are
locked in a struggle with the revolu
tionary Sandinist government over
land claims, preservatin o f their cul
ture and self-determination. The in
dignation from the Reagan A dm in
istration was occasioned by the San
dinist a rm y ’ s forced relocation o f
10,000 Miskitos from their villages
along the Honduran border after a
series o f arm ed incursions in the
area by groups seeking the o ver
throw o f the Sandinistas.
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T o the A m erican and in te rn a
tional human rights organizations
that have been monitoring the situa
tion and supporting the M iskito s,
the problem there is o f a piece with
that o f long-standing violations o f
human rights in B razil, Paraguay
and Chile.
The difference— a perplexing d if
ference to Indian rights advocates—
is that N icarag ua’ s M iskitos have
been caught in the swirl o f an inter
n atio n al g eo p o litical hu rrican e,
where side-taking becomes wrapped
up with ideology and the alignment
o f traditional Indian allies and en
emies is skewed almost beyond rec
ognition.
Traditionally, Indian groups have
looked fo r support fo r In d ian
causes in Latin America to the left
side o f the political spectrum, and in
both L a tin A m erican and N o rth
American matters they have viewed
the U.S. government as a major ad
versary.
On the issue o f the Miskitos, left
ists have lined up behind the Sandin
istas, rightists and government o ffi
cials have rediscovered In d ia n
rights, and Indian rights groups arc
divided— and bewildered.
The stakes in the M iskito Indian
affair arc high. For the Reagan A d
ministration, the issue is Nicaragua
and its leftist government, whose re
moval is a top foreign policy prior
ity. For the Sandinistas and the La
tin A m erica leftist movements in
general, the htmdling o f the Miskito
conflict could determine whether
other In dian populations jo in the
wave o f revolt in Central America—
or return to the sidelines in a lo o f
distrust.
O f five U.S.-based Indian advo
cacy organizations questioned, two
criticized the Sandinist Indian policy
and condemned the relocation, two
defended the Sandinist action, and
one said it was reserving judgment.
All five, however, were critical o f
the role o f the Reagan A dm inistra
tion. Kenneth Taylor, Latin-Am eri
ca co-director o f Survival In tern a
tional, said his organization has de
clined to take a position on the relo
cation except to call for additional
fac t-fin d in g and negotiation. The
U .S . governm ent's expression o f
concern, he said, was "completelyh
unprecedented. When wc have ar
gued (in international organizations
such as the U N . H u m an Rights
Commission) the violations o f hu
man rights o f Indians by 'frie n d ly
a u th o rita ria n regimes' there has
never been any pro-Indian comment
from the State D e p a rtm e n t,”
Taylor said.
In eight years o f In d ia n rights
w ork, he added, he had never even
heard o f the A m erican Security
Council.
C o lte r, o f the In d ia n Law Re
source Center, has a Miskito Indian,
A rm strong W iggins, on his s ta ff.
W ith the Center's backing, Wiggins
presented a formal testimony March
2 to the In te r-A m e ric a n H u m an
Rights Commission o f the O rgani
zation o f A m erican States, de
nouncing the N icaraguan govern
ment's action as a “ gross violation"
o f Indian rights.
But Colter is uncomfortable with
the attention the problem is getting
from the Reagan A d m in is tra tio n .
The Miskitos' conflict with the San
dinistas, he said, is being used by the
State Department for ulterior politi
cal motives which, he said, “ debases
human rights and undermines In d i
an rights.”
W iggins said he agreed: " W e
know the U.S. government is not in
terested in Indian people, they are
only interested in overthrowing the
Sandinist government.”
Two organizations, the American
Indian Movement and the Interna
tional Indian Treaty C ouncil, sent
representatives to the Atlantic Coast
area last last year and called for In
dian support o f the Sandinist gov
ernment. The groups accept the N i
caraguan government’s explanation
that the relocation o f the M iskitos
was a m ilitary necessity because o f
the threat o f anti-government rebel
attacks in the area. The Sandinistas
say up to 60 persons were killed in
such attacks last December.
In a letter to another Indian rights
group, Roxanne Dunbar, an Indian
anthropologist w o rk in g w ith the
Treaty Council, called for an " a lli
ance" between the Sandinist revolu
tion and the Black and Ind ian
minorities o f N icaragua’s A tlantic
Coast.
Dunbar was addressing the editor
o f Akwesasne N otes, a nationally
distributed American Indian news
paper, which had published a long
interview with Wiggins last year at
tacking the Sandinist Indian policy.
Akwesasne Notes has tried to walk a
thin editorial line critical o f Nicara
guan Indian policy but supportive
o f the Sandinist revolution as super
ior to rightist Latin American gov
ernments.
N icarag u a, noted ed ito r John
Mohawk in an editorial, is the first
test o f a leftist revolutionary gov
ernment in a country with a substan
tial Indian population. It is thus un
der close observation by Indian pop
ulations in other countries.
" I f the Sandinist governm ent
continues w ith an In d ia n policy
which gives no more than lip service
to the rights o f M iskitos to a con
tinued c u ltu ra l existence, it w ill
build a wall between leftist national
liberation struggles and Indians in
Central America which no amount
THIS YEAR?
do y o u je e l the claim o f executive
privilege was warranted? H o w do
you feel about the process in gener
al?
A. N o, I do not believe the claim
o f executive p rivilege was w a r
ranted. A lth o u g h the documents
were relevant to the issue the sub
committee is considering (C anadi-
an-U .S. reciprocity with regards to
m ineral rights), they certainly did
not represent the kind o f national
security matters for which the claim
o f executive privilege is usually re
served.
I am most concerned that this
procedure not establish a precedent
for how such m atters w ill be
handled in the future. Congress and
the A d m in is tra tio n should— and
m ust— w ork together in a m ore
open and o rd erly fashion. We
should reserve Constitutional con
frontations for matters o f Constitu
tional importance.
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Indians look at Meskitos' fate
by John Dinges
Pacific News Service
INCOME TAXES
¿ur m i M c m are aiao located at Sean aind moet l^red Meyer store«
g
o f rh eto ric about revo lu tio n can
pen etrate,” said M o h a w k . " A n d
w ith o u t the support and in volve
ment o f Indians, liberation struggles
in Latin America are an impossibil
ity.”
An early casualty o f the political
furor over the Miskito situation was
the possibility o f objective accounts
o f what actu ally happened in the
month o f January along the Coco
River border, between Nicaragua
and Honduras.
The Sandinist arm y adm itted
evacuating about 10,000 Indians
from more than 20 villages, trans
porting them to settlements 50 miles
from the border, then razing the vil
lages, burning the Indians* thatch
houses and k illin g any rem aining
livestock.
That is as fa r as the undisputed
facts o f the case go. The Sandinistas
contend that no one was injured in
the relocation, although part o f the
operation included the arrest o f over
100 Miskitos suspected o f collabora
tion with Honduran-based rebels.
The Sandinist version is backed
up by John W ilson, the Bishop o f
the M oravian church to which the
majority o f Miskito Indians belong.
Wilson and a Baptist church w ork
er, Sixto U llo a , the d irecto r o f a
Protestant social assistance o r
g an ization active in the A tla n tic
Coast area, came to W ashington
last week as part o f a N icaraguan
delegation.
" W e are not Sandinistas,” Ulloa
said. " I f we had any reason to think
there had been killings or brutality,
we wouldn’t have lent our presence
to this trip ."
T o counter the massacre charges
leveled by Secretary H aig, the San
dinist government has form ally in
vited the In te r-A m e ric a n H um an
Rights Commission to make an on-
sight, fact-finding trip. Commission
officials said the invitation would be
accepted.
©Pacific News Service. I9S2
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